Saint Rose Professor Locked Down at RPI

ALBANY, NY – Two sections of a computer science class were canceled Tuesday at The College of Saint Rose after a professor here was under lock down across the river at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

David Goldschmidt, an assistant professor at Saint Rose, emailed his students in CIS 204 and notified them his classes were canceled. The lockdown, which began at about 9:30 a.m., had ended by early afternoon.

Goldschmidt received a text and voice mail message to his cell phone when he was heading to his Operating Systems computer science course, which was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

Students in the Journalism II class at Saint Rose interviewed Goldschmidt through text messaging and email while the lock down was still underway.

Goldschmidt was located in the center of campus at the Darrin Communications Center when the incident unfolded. “Not much info provided – just an armed robbery occurred and suspect at-large, potentially on campus,” Goldschmidt wrote one of his computer science students, also a Journalism II student.

RPI went into lock down after a gunman pulled a heist at a nearby check cashing outlet and then disappeared, according to reports on the Times Union’s web site. Classes were scheduled to resume at 2 p.m. at the Troy school. For more information, see: timesunion.com.

One RPI student, Kathleen Crilley, 20, told The Pine Hills blog that she was in her on campus apartment when she received the first lock down alert at 9:30 a.m. “We were told all classes were canceled until further notice,” Crilley said in a Facebook interview. By the end of the online interview, it was announced classes were scheduled to resume. Students were told a man had robbed a business on Hoosick Street and that he was “armed and dangerous,” Crilley wrote. “My roommate and I were very worried about our friends stuck in academic buildings, but there was constant communication through text messaging, Facebook and Twitter. I don’t know of anyone that saw or came in contact with the suspect.”

Another RPI senior went to the student union and was stuck there. “It’s really annoying if ur stuck in class. pretty sweet if u are at home and not in class. things are a bit confusing and there are a bunch of rumors flying,” wrote Ethan Rudolph, 21. “i guess they are letting people leave now.” -30-